The sports pages are all agog over the fact the Minnesota Twins, who were 59-103 last year, have made the playoffs this year. It’s the first time it’s ever happened, they say. Which is technically true, but it’s not because the Minnesota Twins have improved more than any other team from one season to the next. It’s because so many teams go to the playoffs today.
Since 2012, ten out of thirty teams make the playoffs every year. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it does mean things are going to happen that have never happened before. For example, the Twins. I understand the Twins improved a lot this year, but the only reason they are making the postseason is because five teams in each league make the playoffs now, instead of four teams, which is the way it was from 1995 to 2011. Because if only four teams from each league made the playoffs, the Twins wouldn’t be going. So when people say that the Twins are the first team to lose 100 games one year and make the playoffs the next year, they are really just saying the Twins are the only team to have done it in the last six years.
I can assure you, though, Cubs fans remember. I recall Wayne Messmer talking about the 1967 season, and particularly Sunday, July 2, 1967, at a Cubs Convention one time. The Cubs were ½ game out of first place when the day started. After the Cardinals lost the first game of their doubleheader against the Mets, the Cubs beat the Reds, 4 to 1, behind Fergie Jenkins, which meant the Cubs were in first place all by themselves! Even after the game was over, the fans just stayed in the park, yelling and screaming.
Lou Boudreau, one of the Cubs radio broadcasters on W-G-N, said he had never seen anything like it: “The fans went wild in Cleveland in 1948, but demonstrations like today’s came only in the last two weeks of the season …. But this is only early July. But it’s great.”
When the Cardinals won their second game against the Mets, they moved into a tie for first with the Cubs. But for three hours, we were in first place all by ourselves – for the first time in who knew how many years. And we were excited.
Here is a picture of the Chicago Tribune sports page from the next day, telling of the Cubs making it into first place:
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1 Boston Red Sox fans like to talk about themselves a lot, as everybody who is not from Boston knows.
2 The Red Sox improved 20 games in 1967, going from 72-90 in 1966 to 92-70 in 1967.
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